An anti corruption campaigner and former Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative, Vitus Azeem, has called for regular internal audits in various hospitals to address the diversion of drugs meant for the public for personal interests.
He said the Upper East Region is one of the deprived regions in the country and has always had problems with human and material resources moving into the region, and it is therefore disheartening to note that the few resources are being diverted for private gain.
Mr. Azeem said it is important for the investigation to be extended beyond the three hospital staff arrested to the kingpin, including all buyers of these drugs.
“It should be possible for those arrested to lead to the kingpin because if you are sitting in your store and you are taking drugs that are stolen drugs and you know that they are stolen drugs because these people who came to sell the drugs to you are not from a recognized pharmacy in the country, then those too should be brought to book for unlawful receipt.”
He made these assertions when he spoke to Mark Smith on A1 Radio’s Daybreak Upper East show regarding an investigation by Media Without Borders that led to the arrest of three suspects for stealing 34 boxes of medicines belonging to the Upper East Regional Hospital.
The anti corruption campaigner bemoaned that the thievery in the hospital exposed the weakness of the monitoring system in place to check and ensure incidences of this nature do not occur, and it was a wakeup call to the general public to be vigilant and report illicit acts by staff to the authorities.
The Executive Director of the Northern Patriots in Research and Advocacy (NORPRA), Bismark Adongo Ayorogo, said it was important the culprits arrested were prosecuted to serve as deterrents to others who may want to indulge in such related crimes.
According to him, the Ghana Police Service must intensify its investigation to unravel when these culprits started stealing, who they supplied the medicines to, and those involved to be named, shamed, and punished severely enough to deter others.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Gilbert Azeem Tiroog|Ghana
